Asia

Overview

ICCT’s work in Asia focusses on a number of projects, events and publications related to the region, as well as exchanges with experts and practitioners. In Indonesia, the Centre carries out a number of capacity building projects, including one on the role that victims of terrorism and former extremists can play in countering violent extremism. ICCT is also conducting a modular training course on the rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists offenders in the Philippines.

Overview

ICCT’s work in Asia focusses on a number of projects, events and publications related to the region, as well as exchanges with experts and practitioners. In Indonesia, the Centre carries out a number of capacity building projects, including one on the role that victims of terrorism and former extremists can play in countering violent extremism. ICCT is also conducting a modular training course on the rehabilitation and reintegration of violent extremists offenders in the Philippines.

Featured

In March 2012, Prof. Dr. Rohan Gunaratna interviewed Umar Patek and Ali Imron, both of whom have admitted involvement in the two bomb attacks in Bali in October 2002 which killed over 200 people. This ICCT Research Paper explores violent extremist “narratives” within the Indonesian context by interviewing a convicted terrorist and one currently undergoing trial. It is hoped that by understanding and de-constructing those emotional stories or ideologies that are often told and used to justify violence, or to motivate someone to commit violence, in pursuit of a cause; that the policy making community can then counter these narratives more effectively. This Paper first explores the background of violent extremist narratives and then recounts and analyzes the Patek and Imron interviews. Based on these interviews and current knowledge of violent extremist narratives, the paper concludes with a series of recommendations.

This Perspective discusses the drivers of violent conflict in the Philippines and argues that the policy response needs to take into account the underlying socio-economic motivations for militancy, rather than focusing on superficial claims of IS-affiliation.

Uighurs, specifically individuals of Turkic decent from China’s northwest province of Xinjiang, have become a noticeable part of the constellation of globally active jihadist terror groups. This Policy Brief explores the scope and scale of Uighur Foreign Fighters (UFF) activity in various locations, its implications and how their participation in global jihadist groups may evolve.

Now that the Islamic State appears to be losing ground, and the most imminent threat for the Kurdistan Region in Iraq seems to be over, the time has come for the Kurdistan Regional Government to develop a plan to counter violent extremism.

This Research Paper aims to analyse in depth the global propaganda strategy of the so-called “Islamic State” by looking at the methods through which this grand strategy is carried out as well as its objectives.

New Report: On 2 and 3 September 2015, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) and the Center for Security Programs (CSP) in Astana convened a NATO Advanced Research Workshop titled 'Violent Extremism in Central Asia: Indicators, Trends and Possible Responses', with support of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. The main aim of the workshop was to identify to what extent radicalisation and violent extremism are on the rise in the region, what can and should be done about it and how actors can advance on a countering violent extremism (CVE) agenda in the future.

In this Research Paper, Dr. Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Bram Peeters study seven conflicts that in the past 35 years have triggered Muslims worldwide to leave their home country and become a so-called foreign fighter.